The greening of urban post-industrial landscapes: past practices and emerging trends

Abstract

Public, private, and non-profit entities are increasingly engaged in greening post-industrial landscapes in an effort to achieve a broad array of aesthetic, infrastructure, recreational, ecological, and economic development objectives at various scales. Despite this growing level of interest, however, these projects continue to face numerous challenges related to financing, land acquisition, soil contamination, and concern regarding long-term maintenance, just to name a few. This paper begins with an overview of the “nature” of greening activity that has taken place in the USA and Canada and then focuses on three case studies – Elmhurst Park New York City, South Waterfront Portland, and Menomonee Valley Milwaukee – in order to illustrate the planning processes involved in their remediation and development. Key lessons are then drawn, with a particular emphasis on the growing need to attract buy-in and funding by linking greening with other forms of development and broader urban sustainability initiatives.

Keywords:

• post-industrial
• brownfields
• green space
• parks
• urban sustainability

Acknowledgements

The case studies research was performed under a subcontract with the University of Illinois at Chicago and made possible by grant number TR-83418401 from US EPA and its contents are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of the University of Illinois. The author would like to sincerely thank the interviewees from Milwaukee, Portland, and New York for graciously providing a wealth of information about the projects. The author would also like to thank his student assistants – Lily-Ann D'Souza, Kevin Duffy, Jason Tilidetzke, Marta Brocki, Laura Lynn Roedl, Tim Streitz, and Elizabeth Durkin – for their research support.